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Epilogue

In most versionsof the myth, Hades is the villain.

The captor, the thief, the vile being cast from Olympus and forced to live in solitude in the Underworld, among the souls of the dead.

It’s his cruelty they speak of, his past crimes they hold against him.

No one ever talks about how he saved Persephone.

Dragged her to Hell as his queen, curated an entire realm just to make her happy.

Plied her with love and affection, signed his soul over to her the second he laid his eyes on her form, overtaken by her beauty and purity.

They only see him as the bad guy, because they want to see him that way. Need someone to place their bad luck on, or to blame when shit goes down.

None of them sees the man I do.

Who right now, sits with his ass firmly planted in wet sand, waiting for the next wave to slap against the shore. His hands are so large, they wrap completely around our daughter’s waist, and he bounces her up and down each time the water laps at them, their laughter carrying down the beach to where I’m sitting, working on my query letter.

I didn’t end up going back to school; in the months following my return to Aplana, I watched the life I knew in Boston crumble to ashes, my sisters suddenly finding themselves displaced and having to come stay with us on the island for a while. Kal was busy throwing himself into investments, trying not to let the fact that he hadn’t heard from Violet since the spring bother him, even though I could tell it did.

Still does.

Then, even though I was dutiful about taking my birth control, I got pregnant, and while Kal was hesitant at first to show excitement because of his past, he was amazing about holding my hand through the entire pregnancy, relying on his own medical knowledge to reassure any questions or concerns I had.

I was hesitant, too, because of the way he’d once said he didn’t want to bring children into the world, but when I told him we’d be having a little girl, I learned it wasn’t that he didn’t want kids, it was that he didn’t think he deserved them.

He’d been punishing himself for what my parents did to him. My mother especially.

But when Quincy was born, any doubt I had about his ability to love her or abandon violence disappeared the second he looked into those big, brown eyes.

Not that he’s given it up completely. I sometimes find him in the old outbuilding late at night, “tying up loose ends” from the life he has never gone back to. When he left Ricci Inc., he left it for real.

Or, as much as one can leave the mafia.

Sometimes, when he nicks my skin while we fuck, or he reopens the initials carved on the inside of my thigh, lapping at me like he needs it to survive, I wonder if that’s his way of keeping that part of him in check. If he cures his bloodlust by tasting mine.

Not that I’m complaining.

Their laughter draws my attention from my letter again, and I sigh, slipping the page into my notebook and setting it off to the side, wrapping my arms around myself as I start down the beach toward them.

I finished my first book, a fictionalized account of how I fell in love, a few weeks before Quincy was born, and I’ve been trying to draft queries to agents ever since, but part of me kind of likes just having the book sitting in my office, a collection of my words and imagination where only I can see it.

Sometimes I sit on the back patio and read through, looking out at the flower garden, which finally bloomed after my return to Aplana. Like spring had just been waiting for me to get on board all along.

Eventually, I’ll write the letter. But right now, this life feels more important.

Kal whistles as I approach, his gaze hooding as he rakes over my form, lingering on my legs.

“Q,” he says to our daughter, nuzzling her dark curls, “you might have the most beautiful mom on the planet. I’m just letting you know now, your guy friends are going to want to hang out at our place all the time just so they can catch a glimpse of her.”

I scoff, splashing water at him with my foot. “Please, like they’d even be allowed in the house.”

He grins, his handsome face lighting up with the gesture. “I’m more evolved than that, little one. She can have friends, even guy friends. Who knows, maybe she’ll like girls and I’ll have to worry about them breaking her heart instead.”

Threading my fingers through his hair, I look down at the two of them, my heart aching inside my chest, knowing that regardless of who breaks hers in the future, I don’t have to worry about it being this man.

Bending down, I snuggle myself into their little cocoon, inhaling deeply, trying to commit the smell of happiness to my memory; potential and sweetness wrapped in a tender little package, sometimes full of anguish and stains that muddy the journey, but bring you out whole on the other side.

It’s springtime in the middle of winter, a sliver of light shining on your soul that somehow makes you feel less alone.

Because that’s what happiness is. The people you find along the way who make life a little more bearable.

And once you find them, you don’t let them go.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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